Mighty Macs impress in tight loss

EAST WHITELAND – Monday’s 81-75 setback at Alumnae Hall to Gwynedd-Mercy seemed to indicate that the Immaculata women are getting quite close to challenging the top basketball teams in the Colonial States Athletic Conference.

The Mighty Macs went toe-to-toe with their first place foe for long stretches, and had the Griffins sweating out the final four minutes by staging an epic comeback that turned what was a trending blowout into a nail-biter. And when the upset was finally thwarted, Immaculata walked off the court disappointed with the loss but encouraged by the closing effort.

“(Gwynedd-Mercy) is picked to win the conference, so we are showing we can play with the best of them,” said IU head coach Patty Canterino. “We need to do what we did in that last four minutes and do it for 40 minutes.”

It certainly wasn’t a blow-out, which is a tribute to the tenacity and determination of Canterino’s crew. Down the stretch, Immaculata (4-3, 6-10) forced turnovers by the handful – six in one frenzied late two-minute stretch -- and appeared to make every hustle play and get to seemingly every loose ball. The Macs scored 14 of the final 18 points of the clash, putting a huge scare into the Griffins, who improved to 6-0 in the CSAC (10-5 overall).

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“We had such intensity at the end and it flustered them a little bit,” said senior point guard Chrissy Esbensen. “We talked about needing to have that kind of intensity for 40 minutes and not just the end.

“We’re upset that we loss but it shows the kind of team we are. We fought back and never gave up.”

Esbensen finished with 18 points, nine rebounds, five assists and four steals. And she was one of the catalysts down the stretch, swiping three steals and going 4-for-4 from the line to help slice a 16-point deficit to four, 79-75, in the final minute. Another was sophomore guard Adriana Sciascia, who scored five of her career-high 19 points in the final 2:05. She was in the starting lineup replacing Mackie Fitzgerald, who sat out the game with a neck injury.

“We banged a timeout with about six minutes remaining and said, ‘listen, we’ve got to cut it to 10 with five minutes to go, and we’ll be fine,’” Canterino recalled. “And I thought they did a great job.

“That’s what this team is going to give us. Their work ethic makes everybody so excited to come back to practice the next day.”

It wasn’t all encouraging, however. For most of the evening, the Mighty Macs had all kinds of trouble dealing with GMC’s inside size and strength, and never really had any answer for Natasha Matthews. The 5-foot-11 sophomore finished with a game-high 32 points and 12 boards.

“Matthews is good,” Canterino said. “She is so strong but we’ll make some adjustments the next time we play them.”

Immaculata appeared overmatched in the first few minutes of action, when the Griffins scored 10 of the game’s first 12 points, but were also able to regroup. The Mighty Macs battled back and actually took their only lead, 19-18, midway through the first period, only to see Gwynedd-Mercy close out the half impressively to take a 12-point margin into the break.

The deficit grew to as much as 17 in the second half, but eventually IU began to wear down the much taller Griffins. The final rebounding total was 42-41.

“If we had (injured forward) Allison Zimny and Mackie, we would have a different team,” Canterino said. “But those kids that are out there are getting it done. They fought and did everything they could to get back into the game.”

Sophomore Sara Smith chipped in with 18 points and nine rebounds, and – like Esbensen – played all 40 minutes. The Mighty Macs will get back into CSAC action on Jan. 21st at Neumann.

“Everybody in the locker room was ready to get back to practice as soon as this game ended,” Esebensen said. “Even though we lost this one, I think we are going to make a lot of noise in our league.”